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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:55 am
Time: 11:55 am
Results for police technology (u.s.)
3 results foundAuthor: Casady, Tom K. Title: A Randomized-Trial Evaluation of a Law Enforcement Application for Smartphones and Laptops that Uses GIS and Location-Based Services to Pinpoint Persons-of-Interest Summary: This report summarizes a project that developed, implemented, and evaluated a GIS-enabled application that dynamically identifies the location of persons of interest, such as gang members, sex offenders, parolees, and so on. The application, called P3i, is designed for use by law enforcement officers. P3i pushes the location data to officers' smartphones, tablets, and MDT (mobile display terminal)/laptops. A randomized evaluation was conducted with the Lincoln (Nebraska) Police Department (LPD). Officers (N = 90) were randomly assigned to one of five GPS-enabled devices or a no-P3i, control condition. Over a six-month period, 75 treatment officers were compared to the 15 control officers on a variety of productivity measures as well as to officers' prior year's performance. Measures included citation arrests, warrant arrests, and information reports. We also collected self-report data from surveys asking officers about the duration, frequency, and intensity of their use of the technology. Analyses provide some evidence that officers who used the P3i application on GPS-enabled devices were more productive than controls and more productive than they had been during the prior year. Follow-up analyses suggested a variety of individual difference factors (e.g., high performance officers in 2011, low performance officers in 2010, males) also were correlated with increases in productivity. In focus group discussions with a subset of the officers in the study, the officers expressed great enthusiasm for the P3i application and their use of new mobile technologies in general. The officers had many suggestions for improvements and provided insights into how they specifically used their devices and P3i. A cost-benefit analysis suggested that implementation of the device results in a savings of around $800 per officer, assuming a five-year device life and 7% interest rate. Additional assumptions considering different economic and technical scenarios were also developed and reported, but the results remained basically positive except for iPads, only have positive net benefits when there are no usage costs, while other devices have positive net benefits in almost all cases. In order to better understand officer adoption of P3i as well as their use of smartphones and tablets for work purposes, the project also examined what might account for the use of technology. Consistent with other studies, we found performance expectancy, a belief that the application would aid the participant in the performance of his or her duties, had the primary, significant effect on P3i usage. Thus, this study supports the position that if technology is made available, and officers have a reasonable expectation that it will help them in their work, they will utilize the technology. Further, if that technology actually can help them in their efforts, it is likely that the increase in productivity can be measured and captured. Our project also shows, however, that it may be difficult to find sensitive measures that will capture increases in productivity. One problem that can be anticipated is that outcomes are multi-determined, and thus it can be difficult to find measures that will be sensitive to positive impacts because of the multiple causes for the effects in which we are interested. Details: Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2015. 96p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2015 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248593.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/248593.pdf Shelf Number: 134761 Keywords: ComputersCost-Benefit AnalysisGeographical Information Systems (GID)Police Technology (U.S.)Smartphones |
Author: Hollywood, John Title: High-Priority Information Technology Needs for Law Enforcement Summary: This study reports on strategic planning activities supporting the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in the area of information technology, collecting and analyzing data on law enforcement needs and offering potential solutions through technology assessment studies, extensive outreach and liaison activities, and subject matter expert panels. Strategic planning will help NIJ make the best investments to leverage its limited funds and help the range of technology developers supporting law enforcement better understand the law enforcement community's needs and priorities. By looking across the top-ranking needs, the authors identified 11 crosscutting themes in total. These themes are further grouped into three overarching keynotes - a broad need to improve the law enforcement community's knowledge of technology and practices, a broad need to improve the sharing and use of law enforcement-relevant information, and a broad need to conduct research, development, testing, and evaluation on a range of topics. The latter category includes research on both the "non-material" side of technology, including policy and practices, and more traditional technical development. Key Findings Law Enforcement's Knowledge of IT and Its Dissemination Can Be Improved -A wide range of efforts have been undertaken to disseminate technology information to law enforcement practitioners. -A strong desire for help in technology use and management remains, implying needs for improvement in technology dissemination and education. Sharing, Displaying, and Using Information Effectively Is a Major Challenge -Enabling the sharing of information across law enforcement systems is a difficult problem - technically, organizationally, and commercially. -Information-sharing efforts to date have had limited coverage and can be inconsistent with each other. Further, it is difficult for new developers and users to learn about all of the available information-sharing tools and technologies. -Tools that display situational awareness information to law enforcement users at all levels are lacking. -In addition to sharing information within law enforcement, there is a need to improve mechanisms for communicating with the public. Additional Areas Need Research and Development -There is a need to improve systems for monitoring and protecting the health of officers, including both physical and mental health. -There is a need to improve security, privacy, and civil rights policies for using IT. -There is a need to improve the affordability of law enforcement IT systems across their entire life cycle. -There is an overarching need to identify promising practices that can leverage IT effectively to reduce crime. There is a need to improve IT, along with supporting training and policies, to help law enforcement respond to major incidents. -There is a need to improve, and improve the use of, a range of deployable sensors. These include body-worn cameras, field biometrics, electronic evidence collection systems, and video surveillance systems. Recommendations -A federal coordinator for technology-related outreach should be designated; this coordinator would work with various offices involved to develop and monitor a dissemination strategy capturing who will do what, for whom, and when. -This coordinator should maintain and monitor a master list of outstanding needs and development tasks to address them. -The coordinator should also capture which information-sharing projects are addressing the required tasks and disseminate all gathered information in an information-sharing strategic plan. -Work on providing common operational picture/dashboard displays to law enforcement officers should be undertaken. -Communications between the public and law enforcement should be improved. -The emotional state and physical health of officers should be monitored. -Federal efforts to provide tracking systems for responders during major events should be undertaken. Details: Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2015. 94p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 9, 2015 at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR737.html Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR737.html Shelf Number: 134764 Keywords: ComputersInformation SharingInformation TechnologyLaw Enforcement TechnologyPolice Education and TrainingPolice Technology (U.S.) |
Author: Hollywood, John Title: Fostering Innovation in U.S. Law Enforcement: Identifying High-Priority Technology and Other Needs for Improving Law Enforcement Operations and Outcomes Summary: The National Institute of Justice tasked RAND to host a panel of law enforcement experts to identify high-priority needs for innovation in law enforcement, covering advances in technology, policy, and practice. The needs discussed in this report can help prioritize research, development, and dissemination efforts in ways that will provide the greatest value to law enforcement practitioners. The panel identified four top findings. First, there is a need to improve practitioners' knowledge of available research and technology, starting with a central knowledge repository and research on how to improve dissemination and training methods. Second, there is a need for practices and technologies to improve police-community relations, both to improve encounters with the public and to improve community relations more broadly. Third, there is a need to improve the sharing and use of information in a range of ways. These include means to get crime analysis capabilities to all agencies (including small and disadvantaged agencies), software development to reduce information overload, and model proposal and contract language to make systems interoperable. Fourth, there is a need to reduce backlogs in forensic processing; panelists suggested broadening U.S. Department of Justice forensic grants outside of DNA to help address the backlogs. Additional high-priority needs included further development of policies and use cases for unmanned aerial vehicles, best practices for selecting and using personal gear, and improving defenses against active shooters. The latter included improving both suspicious activity reporting processes and efforts to educate the public on responding to an active shooter. There is also a need for a review of technologies that might improve officers' health. Key Findings Four Top Themes Identified There is a demand for practices and technologies to improve practitioners' knowledge of technologies and how to use them. At the core of needs under this theme was a call for a virtual information repository: a single source for capturing and sharing law enforcement information. There is a call for practices and technologies to improve police-community relations. Very high interest in this theme is being driven largely by the social and political tensions raised in recent years, in the wake of officer-involved shootings controversies and civic unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, and other jurisdictions. There is a need to improve the sharing and use of information. This includes identifying what information is most useful, to avoid the problem of officers being overloaded with information. There is a need to improve forensic capabilities. Many needs here concerned remediating forensic backlogs and lacks of resources driving them. Additional High-Priority Needs There is a need to improve a range of personal equipment and practices for using them. There is a need to develop policies and core use cases for unmanned aerial systems. There is a need to improve dispatch center operations. There is a need to improve defenses against active shooters, both to improve reporting to detect them before they attack and to improve training on how the public should respond. There is a need to identify requirements for technologies to improve officers' physical and mental health. Details: Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2017. 136p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 1, 2017 at: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1814.html Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1814.html Shelf Number: 147003 Keywords: Computers Information Technology Law Enforcement Technology Police Education and TrainingPolice Technology (U.S.)Police-Community Relations |